How the cicada became the symbol of Provence

I lie on the tattered yellow sofa, which is long overdue for replacement, and stare at the thicket of green branches opposite, listening to the song of the cicadas. Cicada – chirp, chirp, chirp, a word that comes from Greek and is an onomatopoeia, i.e. an imitation of a sound from nature. The ancient Greeks saw the cicada, one of the identifying marks of the god Apollo, as a symbol of music and poetry. Cicada in French – cigale.

Legend has it that angels descended from heaven and arrived in Provence in the middle of summer, in the scorching heat. The angels, surprised to see abandoned fields without a living soul, went to the priest to ask for explanations. They found him dozing, woke him up and asked him about the desertedness. The priest explained that due to the intense heat, the farmers could not work in the open fields during the day and preferred to sleep in the shade. The angels returned to heaven and informed God. The latter sent an animal with golden, membranous and transparent wings that sang loudly to prevent the farmers from dozing instead of working.

Cicada in a lavender field in Provence. Artificial intelligence creation, credit: Zvi Hazanov via Midjourn

Rest, summer, love

Rest, summer, love. The song of cicadas is seduction. The males invite the females to love. The song of cicadas is produced by two drum-like bladders on either side of the front of the empty abdomen, which therefore serves as a resonator. These vocal organs are called cymbals in French and the song itself is therefore called cymbalisation.

The same word, cymbale, also means cymbals in French. The word cymbal comes from the Greek, kumbalon, from kumbē, cup. The cymbals of cicadas are two tiny plates attached to the abdomen by a muscle. The contraction and relaxation of the muscle causes the plate to flatten and arch at high frequency, resulting in a sound. Cicadas sing only during the day, while they are silent at night.

In the following photograph of the abdomen of an Australian cicada, a species called Cyclochila australasiae, and colloquially, the cicada Masked Devil, the vocal organs are the white plates.

Masked Devil (Cyclochila australasiae) — Cicada, view of the abdomen of a male. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

And this is what this Australian cicada looks like from the front.

Masked Devil (Cyclochila australasiae) — Cicada. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

Cicadas are not, of course, only found in Provence. We saw an impressive Australian species. 4500 species of cicadas are counted worldwide and South France It took him 16. The cicada lives as a larva for four to six years underground, followed by four to six weeks in the open air, in the summer.

Towards the end of her life, in the summer, the female will lay up to four hundred eggs, each egg no larger than a grain of rice. Only five percent of the egg mass will fulfill their purpose and larvae will emerge in late August-early September, burrowing into the ground to protect themselves from the cold. The cicada emerges from the ground around June 23 and its birth takes two to three hours. It hatches from its shell, clinging tightly to a tree or stone with its six legs, its wings hardening. In places where cicadas are found, you can see pupae, which resemble transparent cicadas.

Cicada hatching from the nest

The distribution of the cicada is, as mentioned, worldwide, but in Provence the attitude towards it is unusual, unique. Like the scents of lavender and mimosa, like the shade of pine and olive trees, like the reflections of the sun on the sea, the cicada is one of the symbols of Provence. La Fontaine saw it as lazy, the people of the Mediterranean saw it as goddesses! How did the cicada become an icon of Provence, decorating its houses, both outside and inside, adorning a variety of products such as tableware and jewelry, sold in its markets and shops, to locals and tourists?

Poetry and Bohemia

Frederic Mistral vs. Jeanne de la Fontaine

We all know the famous parable of Le Fontaine, from 1668, the first of 124 parables, which was translated into Hebrew in all its versions under the title “The Cricket and the Ant.” Well, in French, Le Fontaine did not refer to the cricket but to the cicada. The correct title is “The Cicada and the Ant” (La Cigale et la Fourmi). Le Fontaine presents the cicada as careless, idle, following its own inclinations, not seeing the future. It sang all summer and in the winter it was left without food and came to ask for favors from the ant. It found…

The cicada and the ant

After singing
All summer,
When the cold wind comes,
The cicada was left helpless.
Not even one small crumb
Of a fly or a worm for medicine.
So the unfortunate one went to her neighbor the ant. 
To cry out her hunger,
She asked, she begged, please accompany me.
A few grains for sustenance
Until next season.
I will pay you, she promised,
Even before the summer harvest, 
As my soul lives, I swear by myself,
Interest and principal. 
The ant, not in its nature to lend, 
This is the least of its shortcomings.
And what did you do when it was hot?
She asked the one who came to accompany her.
-Night and day, day and night, 
Don't be angry, Sarah.
-Servant? On the contrary.
It's time to dance.
(Translated by A.L.)

Hear the singer Pierre Loser in the composer's parable.

Le Fontaine unjustly disparaged the cicada. Entomologists have pointed out his many mistakes. The cicada sucks nectar from roots and trees with its proboscis, at all stages of its life. It does not need an ant and generally dies at the end of summer. But Le Fontaine's fanciful assertions are, of course, forgivable because of the literary genre in which he excelled, namely, the intention of the parable to illustrate two contrasting types of people, the bourgeois and the bohemian. The parable writer's right to freedom.

Frederic Mistral turned the cicada into the muse of Provençal poets

In contrast to La Fontaine, the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral identified with the cicada, a dreamy singer, an artist who loves light. The motto he chose for himself, “The sun makes me sing,” is drawn from the cicada’s life pattern. It appears frequently in all his representations as an identifying mark, on the lapel of his coat in the drawing dedicated to him in 1864 by Ernest Hébert, in the ex libris created for him in 1908 by the Catalan painter Joaquim Renart i Garcia, and so on. Mistral partially cleared the cicada of the bad name given to it by Jeanne de La Fontaine…

See the ex libris painted by Joaquim Renarty y Garcia. Below the motto ribbon, inside the circle, notice the golden cicada by Frédéric Mistral.

The ex libris of Frederic Mistral. מקור: Jules Charles-Rousseau's book celebrating the anniversary of the publication of the poem "Mireille"

At the bottom of the ex libris, the lovers are Vincent and Mireille from Mistral’s poem “Mireille.” This is also an allegory for the love bond between Provence and Catalonia.

In 1854, Frederic Mistral founded (1830-1914), with six other colleagues, the movement “Félibrige”, from the Greek word philabros, meaning “friend of the beautiful”. The aim of the movement was to preserve and promote the Provençal language and its culture. Its fifty leaders, bearers of its values, wore a gold cicada pin which passed after their death to their chosen successors, like an academy seat. Each gold cicada bore the symbolic name of a region, city, river or value of the association’s philosophy. A silver cicada was awarded to other members, artists and other writers.

And here are some of those lines dedicated to the beloved cicada, companion of the 1904 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Frédéric Mistral:

While the little cicada sings,

Modest, content with little,

While she celebrates,

All animals build their nests.

and store food in it,

And then winter came, poor cicada,

And the ant tears you apart.

(Translated by A.L.)

From “Golden Islands,” a collection of poems published by Frédéric Mistral in 1863

Was this Frédéric Mistral's ironic response to Jean de La Fontaine? The ant that condemns the cicada to hunger in the parable, doubles and triples its cruelty in Mistral's poetry. Mistral, as he wrote La Fontaine...

Frédéric Mistral, 1907. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

In 1879, the famous naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre came to the aid of his friend Frédéric Mistral in defending the cicada:

Four years of toil underground, one month of celebration in the sun, that is the life of the cicada. Let us no longer blame the adult insect for its mad triumph.

And a few more lines by Frederic Mistral, from the movement's journal:

And the lizards froze with their mouths open in the scorched grass, and the cicadas, mad, on the dusty olive trees, on the thorns and on the green oaks, at the height of the sun, sang with intense passion.

From “Provençal Calendar”, 1890

Art and ceramics

Louis Sicard turned the cicada into the good fairy of Provence

The ceramic artist Louis Sicard, an educated man and close friend of Mistral, came and completed the poet's work. In 1895, Louis Sicard, a promising young ceramic artist from the city of Aubagne, received an invitation from the Marseille tile corporation to create for him a typical Provençal object, a unique gift that he could give to his customers. Louis Sicard, who was close to the association for the promotion of the Provençal language and culture, had no difficulty in choosing.

Louis Sicard, Provençal sculptor. Poster by David Dellepiane. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Louis Sicard (1871-1946), then twenty-five years old, created a paperweight in the shape of a historical cicada on an olive branch with the motto “The sun makes me sing” engraved on it. The first ceramic cicada. It was a great success. Louis Sicard received the honorary title “Father of the Cicada”. Place the cicada on a stack of documents and it won’t fly away…

The first cicada. Source: אתר Louis Sicard Ceramics House

And after the table cicada came the turn of the wall cicada, a lucky charm that also became very popular, even more so.

Model of a cicada as a wall decoration. Source: אתר Emperor House

The cicada on an olive branch has become the logo of Louis Sicard and his ceramics house. Plates, mugs, jugs and other products are embossed with it.

In 1972, Georges, Louis’ son, turned to his friends, the couple Ramon and Sylvain Amy, and told them: “I have found heirs to the ceramics house. You.” Why them? Because of friendship, because Georges knew that the couple Amy would continue to embody the soul of Provence. Ramon and Sylvain said yes to their soulmate and purchased the factory. Thus, Amy’s family took the Louis Sicard ceramics house under its wing and continued the tradition.

In the fascinating video, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the first ceramic cicada, you can see Florence Ami, daughter of Georges and Sylvatte, telling the story of the cicada, which is intertwined with the story of the prestigious ceramic house Louis Sicard.

In honor of the 130th anniversary of Louis Sicard's cicada, my mother's family, brothers, sisters, spouses, uncles, created a white cicada decorated with gold stripes, in a limited number of copies – one hundred and thirty. The cicada dressed in modern festive clothes was created according to the historical model. Traditional methods have not changed, like Louis Sicard, his heirs also prioritize handwork. The Louis Sicard Ceramics House, combining tradition and modernism, is a living testament to the friendship of two families, to the characteristic craftsmanship of Provence, to its soul.

The Cicada Model – 130 Years. Source: אתר Louis Sicard Ceramics House

Four years underground, four weeks of singing in the sun, the cicada of Provence symbolizes the joy of life, the joy of love, the ecstasy of artistic creation, music and poetry, the pleasure of rest and idleness, the uniqueness of the Provençal atmosphere and landscape. The poets of Provence, like Frédéric Mistral, are the “friends of beauty”.

The cicada is deeply rooted in Provençal culture and has become one of its most distinctive symbols. Louis Sicard has left his successors. Other Provençal artists are following in his footsteps and incorporating the cicada into their works. Intoxicating!

Cicadas – Modern Creation. Source: אתר Louis Sicard Ceramics House

Link To the Louis Sicard Ceramics House, in the center of Oban